After two previous delays, CBS Corp. has set December 11 for the company’s annual meeting, a potential hint that the corporation feels investigations into its corporate culture and behavior under former CEO Leslie Moonves may near their end by that time.
CBS announced the new date for the meeting Tuesday in a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
The annual meeting announcement comes just a few days after CBS said it hired an advisory firm to help guide the distribution of a $20 million charitable donation it pledged to women’s equality and anti-harassment organizations in the wake of the sexual harassment scandal that enveloped its former CEO. CBS said the grant recipients will be named by Dec. 14 – a date that is thought to be significant for the timeline of the investigation and its conclusion. CBS initially said it would disburse the funds within a month of the Sept. 9 announcement of Moonves’ departure.
The corporation, which owns the CBS broadcast network and the Showtime pay-cable service, among other assets, has been in the midst of an internal probe ordered by its board of directors following accusations levied in a New Yorker article about sexual harassment and other behavior by former Moonves. The executive left the company in early September. He has denied many of the allegations, several of them from actresses and female producers about unwanted advances he made toward them. Joe Ianniello succeeded Moonves as CEO.
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CBS has pushed back its annual meeting twice this year, largely because it was in the midst of a looming courtroom battle with National Amusements Inc., its controlling shareholder. The two parties reached a settlement in December that avoided legal action and reworked the membership of the board of directors. At that time, former Time Warner CEO Dick Parsons joined the board. He was subsequently named interim chairman of the company.
The probe, which has been extant since August, is being led the law firms Debevoise & Plimpton and Covington & Burling.